Marc De Buck, gedeputeerde Annie Mervillie, gemeenteraadslid

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As member of the Provincial Government of East Flanders in charge of economic affairs and international relations I am honoured to take the floor here today in Dalat on this important seminar on agriculture and would like to thank you very much for your hospitality.

I am very pleased that our Provincial Government, maintaining foreign relations with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam already since 2000, has made of this cooperation one of the key points within its foreign policy. This cooperation, focussing mainly on specific economic projects, also supports the highly appreciated scientific work of the University of Ghent and other East Flemish knowledge centres in e.g. the field of agri- and aquaculture.

Since the start of our cooperation with Vietnam we are strongly impressed not only by the rapid development of this country but also by its amazing dynamism. We were immediately convinced by the important opportunities for our companies and knowledge centres. Allow me briefly to mention some highlights of this cooperation so far. There was the successful participation of Vietnam as guest country at the International Trade Fair "Accenta", one of the largest consumer fairs in Europe, during which we organised the Vietnam Business Forum to which not less then 350 business people from both countries attended. We organised two successful East Flemish provincial economic missions to Vietnam, one in February 2006 including a scientific delegation and 30 companies and one in October 2008 with 25 companies. The establishment of the Flanders Economic Office in HCMC in 2007 illustrated the strong intention of the Provincial Government of East Flanders to continue maintaining and to even further elaborate our close relations with Vietnam in a structural way and this not only in the economic but also in the scientific sphere. During our cooperation with Vietnam we could always count on the support of the Belgian Embassy, the Belgian Consulate in HCMC and the Walloon trade Commissioner in Vietnam who I would like to thank hereby.

Agri- and horticulture are spear sectors in our Flemish economy. Because of the historical fact that Flanders has a big population density combined with a limited farming land and additionally, thanks to the excellent scientific support by our universities and knowledge centers we have a very high yield and are at the top in Europe what this concerns. Our agricultural and horticultural sector is also a very international oriented sector.

Lamdong province has a lot of assets for agriculture and horticulture with a lot of opportunities for our companies present here. Let me refer to the example of Denis Plants, an East Flemish company, active here in Lam Dong since many years with nice results. Starting from a win – win situation for both Lam Dong and East Flanders we organised this economic and scientific mission. As you have noticed, not only companies searching for business opportunities are present here today but also the University of Gent, the University college Kaho St Lieven and the East Flemish agri- and horticulture knowledge centre PCS are participating. The presence of these knowledge centres can be of interest for the agri- and horticulture in Lamdong Province itself and can create, as already said, a win -win situation to which we attach great importance.

We are very well informed that Lam Dong Province is an excellent location for agri- and horticulture with a good organised agri- and horticultural sector, well supported by the local government. The intention of this visit is also to create structural relations in the future between our province and the province of Lam Dong. Therefore I would - on my turn – like to take this occasion to invite you to visit East Flanders where we will welcome you very heartily!

Thank you very much
Marc De Buck
Member of the Provincial Government of East Flanders